SHOWTRIAL

Show trial

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as an impressive example and as a warning to other would-be dissidents or transgressors. Show trials tend to be retributive rather than correctional justice and also conducted for propagandistic purposes. The term was first recorded in the 1930s.

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show trial

Noun

  1. A trial held for appearance's sake, but for which the verdict is predetermined; especially when the verdict is "guilty", and the purpose of the trial is to make an example of the accused.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: show trial
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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